Religious Right Goes Nuts Over Transgender Appointee Amanda Simpson

Amanda Simpson, who was named by President Obama to be senior technical adviser for the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, has worked in the field for over 30 years. But prominent figures on the religious right are claiming that she was picked only as part of some transsexual agenda.

"Is there going to be a transgender quota now in the Obama administration?" asked Peter LaBarbera, president of the anti-gay group Americans for Truth. "How far does this politics of gay and transgender activism go? Clearly this is an administration that is pandering to the gay lobby."

"Simpson's nomination was forwarded through to President Obama by a gay activist group, making it appear that this appointment of a male-to-female 'transgender' activist to a high level Commerce Department position to be payback to his far-left base for their political support," a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family said in statement.

Matt Barber, associate dean at Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University, said the appointment "boggles the mind" and said that while African-Americans might deserve special treatment, transgender people don't.

"This isn't like appointing an African-American in order to try to provide diversity and right some kind of discriminatory wrong," he said. "This is about political correctness."

Of course, as Steven Benen points out, none of these angry conservatives even consider that Simpson was simply the best candidate for the job.

Simpson herself anticipated this reaction: "[There will be] questions like: Is this a token? Are you here to do a job or just to fill a quota or appease other people? In that regard it makes it a bit more difficult," she said. "I'm sure I will have to do and intend to do a far superior job than any other person. But I'm sure I will always be second-guessed."

David Brody at the Christian Broadcasting Network also predicted a right-wing backlash and argued that the right thing to do would be to not hire transsexuals, for that reason: "The transgender thing doesn't play well with millions of conservative Evangelicals. ... I understand President Obama won't be after die hard conservative Evangelicals in 2012 but let's remember that moves like this don't play well with the million of conservative Independent voters and Catholics who will be up for grabs again in 2012 as well."

Transgender rights supporters, however, are cheered that Obama didn't let fear of bigotry dictate his choice. "If you look at the job she's taking and at her résumé, this is not a quota appointee," Mara Keisling, of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the New York Post. "She's unquestionably qualified for the job. The story is . . . not that [Obama] appointed one of us but that finally we have an administration for which that's not a deal breaker."

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Comments

[rayzrface714]

05:22 PM on 02/17/2010

I like what i have read over the qualifications issue which seems to have been overlooked by a lot of the commentees.Besides times are changing get used to it.

[sylvar]

03:25 PM on 01/14/2010

I wish my fellow Christians would consider Galatians 3:28 when thinking about their transgender neighbors: "There is no ... male or female, for you are all one in Christ."

[ladyga]

03:22 PM on 01/10/2010

[quote from article] "David Brody at the Christian Broadcasting Network also predicted a right-wing backlash and argued that the right thing to do would be to not hire transsexuals, for that reason: "The transgender thing doesn't play well with millions of conservative Evangelicals. ... I understand President Obama won't be after die hard conservative Evangelicals in 2012 but let's remember that moves like this don't play well with the million of conservative Independent voters and Catholics who will be up for grabs again in 2012 as well."

Conservative Christians... As the gentleman below states, "Oxymoron indeed"! Funny, if you read the gospels, the apostles had a community purse... "All put their money in and were given according to their need." WOAH... Isn't that communism?

As far as Transgender (For you "Christians"): If you believe the Bible, then you would do well to remember the following verses:

"If you believe something to be a sin, then for you, it is."
"Do not stand in the way of sinners"
"Judge not, lest ye shall be judged!
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
"As you have done to the least of my brethren, you have also done unto me" - Jesus

In other words, your self-righteousness ends at your fingertips and God IS watching you. Your "beliefs" are merely that! You have no right to impose your will on anyone else!

Amanda... you go girl!

[mar ny]

12:50 PM on 01/07/2010

Amanda's appointment was, as everyone is aware, run in many media sources. One such source was The Daily Post, where the readers' response to this appointment was down right hostile. Of course though, none of these shallow minded respondents did any research on Amanda's qualifications for this position, she has an impressive list of accomplishments and qualifications and these qualifications. To make a statement that Amanda was appointed to this position simply because she is trans I think is very unfair to her since she is an accomplished person.
I just do not understand how or why these conservatives put so much effort into fighting a fight that they are eventually going to lose in the future. These people need to get over this already! What many of these conservatives do not realize is that most all developed nations are gravitating towards a more civilized society, in fact it is termed A Global Civilized Society, with which all participating nations are judged and ranked according to categories of civilized behavior, being bigoted is not one of the categories! And it is with a nation's ranking in this Global Civil Society that will eventually dictate that nations economic ranking. My point here is that civilized humanity is diverting away from this past aggressive form of behavior when it comes to the individuality and diversity of people.
I wish Amanda all the best in her new position!!
Marci - NY

[EmmaJ76]

07:19 AM on 01/08/2010

mar ny, a fantastic post! Fanned and favved.

[Roll451]

11:13 AM on 01/07/2010

One of the nicer anecdotes I read about George W. Bush was that while attending a reunion in Texas he met a woman who was a man when Bush originally met him. Bush said something like "It's nice to see that you came back as the person you really are." I don't think the wing nuts realize how isolated they are on this issue (if it even deserves to be called an issue).

[EmmaJ76]

07:20 AM on 01/08/2010

I like hearing stories like that, it just shows that people can be nice and that even though you may disagree with someone, especially me openly not liking Bush I have respect for his attitude here. A lot of right wing individuals could do well to take a leaf out of his tolerance here.

[joelaf]

10:53 AM on 01/07/2010

If her being transgender had not been revealed, they would have gone after her for being a woman, or some other petty BS

[JackFertig]

10:16 AM on 01/07/2010

It appears that Obama merely picked a highly qualified person for the job and that the R's screaming about a "quota" are the ones who actually have a quota for transgendered appointees: zero.

What I find amusing is that nowhere here do I see any indication of them arguing that Ms. Simpson is unqualified for the job -- and clearly the evidence is that she his extremely capable. The bigotry here is so transparent as to be auto-satirical.

[Michael McElroy]

08:40 PM on 01/07/2010

I know, right? How dare he appoint someone qualified that makes the republicans feel icky?!

[Yves Papa]

09:22 AM on 01/07/2010

I love walnuts.

[TryToBeFlexible]

08:52 AM on 01/07/2010

Evangelicals should not be allowed to hold any important jobs, because their "beliefs" are a form of insanity, so they are not able to perform mental functions in a useful manner.

[Roll451]

11:17 AM on 01/07/2010

You are tarring a very large group of people with an unnecessarily broad brush.

[sunsethill]

11:30 AM on 01/07/2010

Perhaps the correct percentage is 99% ...

[lefty joymonger]

03:53 PM on 01/07/2010

Christian is the very large group, Evangelical Christian is the specific sub-group of Christians that TTBF is referring to.

[Guy Underbridge]

09:58 PM on 01/07/2010

or at least until they've recovered with some sort of 12-step program.

[Dave Scofield]

07:46 AM on 01/07/2010

Commenting on the David Brody quote:

"I understand President Obama won't be after die hard conservative Evangelicals in 2012 but let's remember that moves like this don't play well with the million of conservative Independent voters and Catholics who will be up for grabs again in 2012 as well."

Basically, this is a red herring to distract you from the fact that Brody and others like him speak from a very bigoted position. It is rather absurd that these religious wackos demand that Obama take into the consideration the opinion of a relatively small group of people who would NEVER vote for a Democrat in the first place.

[seawolf77]

06:30 AM on 01/07/2010

Republicans are that child playing that game where you stick the circle in the circle and the triangle in the triangle. Some sadistic parent throws a parrallelogram in there and the kid short circuits and has to be carted off to the funny farm. Another republican bites the dust.

[mikecarter]

04:03 AM on 01/07/2010

The woman has a resume that reads as if she decided on this job when she was in Grade One and has pursued "most qualified" status with laser-like focus. Where do the Christian Conservatives (an oxymoron if there ever was one) get off being incensed over something that has nothing to do with how she performs the duties of the office to which she has been appointed?

And is this righteous wrath just the run up to a massive head-through-the-ceiling performance when they realize that Gender Identity is now on the list of things that CANNOT be considered? May I have a ticket, please?

Really folks, get a grip. You are trying to defend the idea that qualifications are not as important as a person's private life (and there is a reason we call it "private"). Do you truly want to open up that can?

Just be still, and remember that G-d made us all ...... and G-d does not make junk.

[ByeByeBushie]

07:13 AM on 01/07/2010

So well put!

[vhsingularity]

08:59 PM on 01/07/2010

Yes, exactly right... and where were all these complaints back when Bush appointed a guy who was an expert on horse-racing as the head of FEMA?

[Savannah Logsdon]

02:52 AM on 01/07/2010

Good for Amanda! :)

Also good for the greater GLBT community, but I hope someday Trans folks Gender ID will be a "so what" issue. Hopefully someday soon.

[SDindependent]

01:46 AM on 01/07/2010

The "religious right" is so easy to torment......... where would we have all been if God were so intolerant?

[Higgs Boson]

12:45 AM on 01/07/2010

There is a big problem in America when Americans don't understand that other Americans who are not like all Americans are still Americans and have all the rights as an American that all Americans have. What's wrong with some Americans ? Don't they understand what America is even about ? My mother taught me to "live and let live " and that works pretty well. We need more "live and let live " in America and less of this kind of hatred from these so called Christians who apparently didn't get the message of tolerance from Jesus.